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A decade ago Mission Of Burma bucked the trend
and became one of the rare instances of a rock band - one which had
disbanded at the peak of their powers - reuniting and not only not
sucking but going on to a whole second act, no less creative
and vigorous than before. This year Roger pulled yet another neat
trick, reuniting the high school band he had back in Ann Arbor with his
twin younger brothers Benjamin and Laurence, and doing some select club dates that were not only not embarassing, but a positive revelation.

Sproton Layer at the Mercury Lounge this evening showed that the teen
trio's sources were pretty close to the surface - lots of Interstellar
Overdrive, some jagged Crimson riffing, a little 'out' jazz and plenty
of late psych flourishes, including some Forever Changes trumpet blasts -
but they made them into something of their own and delivered them with
the benefit of 40+ years worth of hard-earned chops. It's definitely
music of its time (1969-70), but you could hear plenty of premonitions
of what they would go on to do in MOB, Destroy All Monsters and their
other projects over the years. It also sounded convincingly
contemporary for 2013, and how many people could say that about their
high school band?

In a perfect world Sproton Layer, too, would
pick up where they left off and carry on for a few more great records,
but who knows if their other projects will allow that? In any case, if
you get the chance to see them by all means go, you're in for a treat.

SPROTON LAYER was a psychedelic rock band based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They thrivedfrom March 1969 to September 1970. The band members were all in High School.They later went on to play in Destroy All Monsters and Mission of Burma.

Journalist Michael Azerrad described their recordings in his book OUR BAND COULD BE YOUR LIFE (p) 2001"...a valuable document of an amazing band that sounded like Syd Barrett fronting Cream"

We always thought the coolest gig possible would be at Ann Arbor's Hill Auditorium with Syd Barrett's Pink Floyd headlining,Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band in the middle slot, with Sproton layer opening..."

The
mastering for the 2013 World in Sound release of "With Magnetic Fields
Disrupted" is a great improvement over the 1991 New Alliance version.
The bass is deeper, the vocals sit better in the mix, and the harshness
is gone. Both the CD and LP have a massive booklet including a
time-line history of the band with drawings, photos, and journal entries
from 1969-1970. A trip through time, and a trip through the brothers
Miller, collectively.

A second Sproton Layer CD/LP,
"Press Your Hand and the Whole Room Fluctuates", is slated for a 2017 release.The last of the old recordings of yet more songs and defining
improvisations back in the day.